Animal-feeding device.



' R. E. RUNNER.

ANIMAL FEEDING DEVIGE. APPLIGATION FILED FEB. a, 1910.

965,602. Patented July 26, 1910.

ANIMAL-FEEDING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 2 6, 1910.

Application filed February 8, 1910. Serial No. 542,791.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RALPH E. RUNNER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Indianola, in the county of Warren and State of Iowa, haveinvented a certain new and useful Animal-Feeding Device, of which thefollowing is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a simple, durable andinexpensive device for warming milk or other liquid foods and forconveniently and easily delivering same through suitable rubber nipplesto young animals.

More specifically it is my object to provide a device of this kind thatmay be readily and quickly adapted for feeding animals of various kindssuch as calves, lambs and pigs, and also to provide a device in which acomparatively large quantity of milk or other liquid may be containedand kept in heated condition and a measured quantity thereof may beplaced in position where it is accessible to the young animals so thatthey maybe fed frequentlyin small quantities without the necessity ofthe operator handling a large quantity of milk or other liquid food eachtime that the animals are to be fed.

A further object is to provide a device of this kind which may beadapted to feed different numbers of young animals.

My invention consists in certain details, in the construction,arrangement and combination of the various parts of the device wherebythe objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully setforth, pointed out in my claim and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a vertical, longitudinal, sectional view through a deviceembodying my invention. Fig. 2 shows a transverse, sectional viewthrough same, and Fig. 3 shows a side elevation.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, I have used the referencenumeral 10 to indicate the supporting legs of the device which legs aremade longitudinally adjustable by means of the thumb nuts 11 in theslots 12. Supported on top of the legs is a bottom piece 13. Secured toboth sides of this bottom; piece is a delivering chamber for liquidfoods. This chamber comprises an inner wall 14 and an outer wall 15 andthe bottom thereof is mounted at 16. The chamber is also provided withsolid ends 17 and is open at its top. Mounted between the inner walls 1of said delivering chambers is a bottom 18 for the main liquid foodcompartment extending from one end of the device to the other thusforming a space between the bottom 18 and the bottom 13 to receive aheating lamp 19 which heating lamp may be admitted into said heatingspace through the door 20 at one end. of the device.

Mounted on top of the outer walls 15 is a detachable cover 2landextended through the cover 21 and through the bottom 18 is a heat pipe22 provided at its central portion with a fourway pipe connection 23,and two pipes 24 are inserted in this connection. One of them isextended through both walls of one of the delivering compartments andthe other is extended through both walls of the other deliveringcompartment to discharge into the outside atmosphere.

At the bottom of each of the delivering compartments is a series ofrubber nipples 25 of ordinary construction and on top of the heat pipe22 is a hood 26, which hood is mounted on the pipe so that it may be removed prior to the removal of the cover 21.

At the side of each of the delivering compartments is an openingprovided with a door 27 and this door may readily and easily be openedand swung outwardly and downwardly to provide access to the interior ofthe delivering compartment. Mounted in the compartment for containingthe milk or other liquid food is a faucet 28 arranged to discharge intothe bottom of the delivering compartment. A similar faucet is providedfor each of the delivering compartments.

In practical use the operator first places a comparatively largequantity of milk or other liquid food in the containing compartment.This is done by first removing the cover 21. In practice a sufficientquantity is usually placed in the device at one time to furnish a dayssupply for the animals; then the lamp 19 may be removed through the door20 and the lamp ignited and placed in position directly under the pipe22. The heat from the lamp will rise through said pipe 22 and it willalso pass through the laterally extended pipes 2 1 and thus it will heatthe milk or other liquid food and at the same time warm the deliveringcompartments by radiation from said pipes. When the milk or other liquidfood is about the proper temperature and when the operator desires tofeed young animals he then opens one of the doors 27 and opens theadjacent faucet 28 and permits a suflicient quantity of the milk orother liquid food to run into the bottom of the delivering compartmentfor the purpose of giving the animals to be fed their milk. Then thefaucet is closed and the animals to be fed may remove the contents ofthe delivering compartment through the nipples 25 on one side; then thesame operation is carried out in regard to the delivering compartment onthe other side. In this way a greater or less number of animals may beaccommodated at one time. After the milk or other liquid food isWithdrawn from the other delivering compartments, the remainder in thecontaining compartment will be kept in a heated condition until it istime to feed the animals again.

By means of this device it is obvious that the young animals may be fedat frequent intervals With a minimum of attention on the part of theoperator as all he needs to do is to open the door 27 and turn thefaucet 28 and he does not have to handle any large quantity of milk orother liquid food nor provide any means for heating it other than thatprovided by the heating device itself. Furthermore none of the liquidfood is Wasted at any time for the reason that the operator places inthe delivering compartment only so much at one time as the animals willremove from the delivering compartment. If the animals to be fed arequite small the legs are adjusted so that the nip ples Will stand justat the proper distance from the floor of the building in which thefeeding is being done, or if the animals to be fed are larger theposition of the nipples may be raised.

I claim as my invention:

A feeding device of the class described, comprising a body portionhaving a compartment designed to contain liquid foods, means forsupporting a lamp below the compartment to heat it, a deliveringcompartment at the side of the containing compartment, a nipple in thebottom thereof, means for providing access to the interior of thedelivering compartment, and a faucet communicating with the containingcompartment and designed to discharge into the delivering compartment,for the purposes stated.

RALPH E. RUNNER.

\Vitnesses to signature: H. H. MoNnIL, HUGH QUINN.

